Mobile communications devices, such as cellular telephones and PDAs, are becoming ubiquitous, and use of such devices has become a normal part of daily life for many individuals. The mobile communications device is often carried by individuals at most hours of the day as they travel from place to place. During this time, the mobile communications device is a primary manner of conveying information to the user. Advertisements are one example of information that can be conveyed.
There are several drawbacks with providing advertisements to mobile communications devices. One problem is that bandwidth downstream to the mobile communications device from a mobile communication network is usually limited so that advertisements cannot be transferred very often or very quickly. As a result of this issue, the advertisement is typically repeated rather than transferring new content to the mobile communications device.
It has been found that as a general conclusion, users of mobile communications devices dislike repeated advertisements and may ignore them or even become frustrated when seeing the same advertisement more than once, especially within a short span of time. Furthermore, the advertisements may be provided by the mobile communications device while having no particular relevance to the present context for the user. Repeatedly viewing the same irrelevant advertisement creates further discontent.